Cause I'm tired of being sick and tired of injustice

Month: December 2015

I told yall, I told yall in my post called Black People Can’t Have A Freaking Movement Without Divisiveness and In-Fighting that history is repeating itself in this current social justice movement, Black Lives Matter. There are many reports that Negro Male activist and (mis) leaders are sexually taking advantage of Black Women (and probably girls too, God be with them all!) THIS IS HORRIFYING! I’ve collected the following reports (out of Chicago) from several Black Women Bloggers that are discussing this issue. Many in the so-called Black Community wants Black Women to stay quiet about these incidents for the sake of solidarity. The accounts below speak for themselves:

“Several prominent Chicago youth organizers—all of them Black women, and the majority of them queer—were physically assaulted on Black Friday during the hugely successful shutdown of the Magnificent Mile in honor of Laquan McDonald.

The religious leaders and community elders who called for the demonstration rallied early in the day at the Water Tower in the Loop. Several youth organizations—BYP100, FLY and Assata’s Daughters—were invited to participate, and appeared in several photo ops with Jesse Jackson Sr. and other public figures, the majority of them men.

As organizers began to address the crowd, several well-known Black elders forced their way to the front, pushed youth organizers back from the mic, and one man actually began elbowing a young, Black, queer woman in the face. Minutes later, when one of the heads of BYP confronted the elder, he swung on a second Black woman, shouting sexist and homophobic slurs, and a small scuffle ensued.

In the wake of the altercation, youth organizers performed their own mic check to address the crowd, then promptly left the march—some to treat injuries, while others simply felt deeply unsafe and disrespected.

The Black, queer women targeted in this attack were the same ones who had been clashing with police in the streets all week, including the night the video of Laquan was released. They were the same organizers who had staged and been arrested in the shutdown of the IACP conference in Chicago last month. They were the youth who have been working tirelessly to lift up the name of Rekia Boyd, and who created a seamless campaign to fire Dante Servin, the officer who killed her. They were the same youth who have been instrumental in organizing for and ultimately winning a trauma center for the South Side, and who led the original Black Friday shutdown of the Magnificent Mile in 2014.

In short, they were badass, Black, queer, young women who have orchestrated and overseen long-term campaigns for Black lives in the city of Chicago with little to no support from the male elders who attacked them.”

Below is a Black Woman activist’s story out of Chicago of being sexually assaulted:

As you may know, I recently disclosed that I am a survivor of a sexual assault perpetrated by your co-chair and regarded community organizer, Malcolm London. I came forward during the intense social media campaign surrounding his recent arrest at a demonstration for Laquan McDonald.

While I understand the campaign was necessary for the movement, and for Malcolm’s safety, having my social media bombarded with images of the person who harmed me accompanied by descriptions of him as a hero and upstanding human was nothing short of traumatizing. So I decided to share my story.

While I didn’t plan or expect my disclosure to become as public as it did, I appreciate the swift and largely loving response I received from all over the country, as well as the seriousness with which your organization is regarding this issue. BYP, thank you for contacting me so quickly and starting your internal accountability process immediately upon Malcolm’s release. And while I am looking forward to speaking with you in person, I believe that true accountability cannot begin unless the entire community is aware and involved in holding our leaders to a standard that will keep us safe. That is why I am writing this letter.

The assault happened three years ago on this exact day. I had met him a few days prior at an event and he asked me if I wanted to go see a movie after I’d finished Thanksgiving dinner with my family. On the way to the movie, we talked about his activism and my role as a sexual health and assault educator on my college campus. He told me sexual violence prevention was something he was really passionate about and I felt relieved to finally be around someone who understood. Because I thought he was a safe person, I disclosed to him that I had been assaulted a few months prior and that I was in the middle of a court process that was equally as traumatizing as the assault itself. He seemed outraged and concerned. I felt like I could trust him.

After the movie, he asked to come up to my apartment for coffee and I obliged because I thought he needed it to stay awake during his drive home. But when I offered it to him he said he didn’t actually want any, and just wanted an excuse to come upstairs. He made a few sexual advances, and each time I asked him to stop. I was clear that I did not consent, and I thought he got the picture that he’d made me uncomfortable. But because it was late, at some point I dosed off and I woke up with Malcolm’s fingers in my vagina. (For those who are unaware, unconscious people cannot consent to sex.) I immediately asked him to leave and once he was gone I told him what he did was an act of sexual violence. He was apologetic, but did not understand why what he did to me was assault. To this day, he still refers to what occurred between us as “a misunderstanding.”

As someone who works with survivors of sexual violence and has dedicated much of my time to educating people about the history of rape in the Black community, I know my story is far too common. Black and Brown women are abused at the hands of men of color and we’re told to stay silent about our experiences in order to “help the movement.” And as Black and Brown women, we carry the community on our backs and will do anything to protect our sons, brothers, and fathers even when they are harming us. I’ve had Black survivors tell me that they didn’t press charges against their attacker because they “didn’t want to put another Black man in the system.” Prominent Black male leaders like Huey Newton have abused their power raping Black women and we erased those women’s stories out of history.

When I came forward this week, there were activists who messaged my friends saying that sharing my story was damaging to the community, and that I needed to be quiet until Malcolm was released because it was inconvenient timing. But liberation isn’t convenient, or easy. We don’t get to say “Hold up while we free these people real quick and then we’ll come back for the rest of you,” which is in essence what Black women have been told throughout history. Solidarity is for Black men and white women, not us.

As a Black woman, the idea of a “safe space” is currently a fallacy for me. I am not safe out in the world, I am not safe in my own community, and I am not even safe in activist spaces around people who claim to be working towards my liberation. You can’t fight for me while I’m awake then rape me while I’m asleep. I want be a bigger part of the movement, I want to join protests, I want to organize, but I can’t do that when the person who hurt me is a figurehead in those spaces.

I doubt I’m the first person who hasn’t felt safe in communities because of violent masculinity and coercive sexual scripts. I doubt I’m the only woman Malcolm has harmed. We’re keeping important voices of Black and Brown women out of the movement because they are scared to join. Liberation for some is liberation for none.

We can’t trust the justice system to protect us or to hold perpetrators accountable– that much is clear. So, we need to work towards a way to do that ourselves. By sharing my experience, my short term goal is to come up with a system by which we can hold people in the organizing community accountable when they hurt people, and to educate folks both before and after harm is done. And maybe that system can turn into inspiration for ways we can protect the community at large without police. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like yet, but I am looking forward to working with you to figure out a plan.

Sincerely,

Kyra

The BYP’s response of what happened to this young sista’s report of sexual assault:

We have been made aware of a sexual assault allegation involving a BYP100 leader. As an organization rooted in a Black queer feminist framework, we take reports of sexual assault extremely seriously. When this allegation came to our attention, we immediately embarked on our accountability process. We are committed to seeing it through. The BYP100 member has been placed on a mandatory membership hiatus. BYP100 has initiated a course of action involving both parties to assess next steps. Our next steps will be centered in a transformative and restorative justice process, rooted in compassion, accountability and a belief that no one is disposable. We ask that throughout this process that no one resorts to victim blaming, conspiracy accusations or any other defamation against the intentionally unnamed party who brought forth the report.

Here is a report and video from the African Pride Movement facebook page about a fight that broke out (again in Chicago I think) among Black Lives Matters protesters (because a sista was being sexually assaulted):

Activists chanting “STOP STOP STOP….WE HAVE TO COME TOGETHER” and “WHAT ARE YOU’LL DOING” as a march begins in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping district.

The demonstration Friday to protest a fatal shooting by police last year has so far been peaceful. Until violence breaks out from protesters against each other. Members of local activist organization ‪#‎BYP100‬ can be seen in an altercation with other protesters. You can clearly see the BYP100 National organizer , Charlene Carruthers, at the beginning of the video getting involved with the disruption. The civil unrest was the result of an alleged assualt on a female BYP100 member by another‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ protester. Although reports have been issued that these protests where “peaceful”, clearly the tensions where high within the protesters themselves.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he believes the protests have gone “exceptionally well” in large part because his officers have gone out of their way to let demonstrators express their outrage. He says despite people screaming in their faces, getting hit with spittle and thrown objects, officers are acting in a professional manner.

Black Women are not safe anywhere…..not even in the Black activist spaces, let alone the Black Community. Black Women can’t even seek social justice without experiencing sexual assault and abuse in any other form as well from some of the very men we fight for and trust. This is a sick pattern of sexual assault and abuse of Black Women activist and freedom fighters is repeating itself again! And these sistas are told by the “community” that if they tell their stories their being “divisive” and to stay quite for the sake of solidarity with these unscrupulous monsters? Tell me, who and what are we fighting for sistas? We fight for liberation and what thanks do we get? Abuse, neglect, rejection, and our contributions ignored, dismissed or forgotten. This is the same shit our foremothers endured in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and prior to from a lot of the Black Male “activist” and (mis)leaders. Times have changed, but the actions and behaviors of (too) many Black Men towards Black Women in activist circles certainly haven’t. IF YOU’RE A BLACK WOMAN OR GIRL WHO IS OR HAS EXPERIENCED SEXUAL ASSAULT WITHIN ACTIVIST SPACES, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT FOR THE SAKE OF SOME BLACK “SOLIDARITY” THAT ISN’T EVEN THERE TO START WITH AND REMEMBER THAT RACIAL LOYALTY AIN’T WORTH A SHIT IF ITS NOT BEING RECIPROCATED. Black Women better start choosing who we fight for more wisely……….

In my spare time, I like to lurk around the blogosphere to see what people are talking about, even those I do not follow or agree with (most of the time). I just happen to stumble upon Evia Moore, a BWE (Black Women Empowerment) Blogger who posted the following journal article about some startling statistics (I’m not really that surprised) about self-hating black men’s and non-black women’s bi-racial children making up a large percentage of the U.S. foster care system and how she says their attempt to pin this mess on Black Women:

“There’s a new Okey Doke floating around that is attempting to blame bw (sigh) for the blighted lives of the increasing number of black-whiter biracial children who end up in the social services pipeline. Someone just sent me the real deal–the stats on this, and bw, y’all need to circulate these stats far and wide to set the record straight.

These are not Black WOMEN’s children. Bw are in no way responsible for what’s happening to these children! These are overwhelmingly the children of African American men and their white girlfriends, white female hook-ups, or white baby-mamas, though some of the mothers are Hispanics or Asian.

There are a lot of these unfortunate black-whiter biracial children now in the social services pipeline and their numbers are growing by the day, but since those black males and their supporters who have created an industry on social media out of denigrating bw can’t make these children disappear, they are now claiming that these are the children of black women and white men. LOL!”

NO.they.are.not.

As this research shows:These are overwhelmingly the children of African American men and their bamboozled whiter (white-skinned) women partners.

I’m calling these women “bamboozled” just like I do bw who mingle with men of this sort because NO woman I’ve ever encountered, known, read about, or heard of would even mingle with this type of man in the first place if she hadn’t been somehow duped. 99.999% of all women want the same things from a man. They want to be loved, validated, accepted, protected, and thought of as somehow special to that man. And men of this sort know that.

There is another aspect of this that makes some of these minglings especially problematic. Some African American males woo whiter women by spreading lies about bw, telling ww how horrible and unfit bw are, thus denigrating the AA woman in order to elevate the whiter woman and make her feel special. Playing on human psychology, they know that most women want to feel prettier and more desirable than the next woman. The whiter woman has no idea that she is being conned until she, too, and her children, just like many AA women, end up headed for or in the social services pipeline–used, abused, and abandoned.

As usual, the children are the worst victims! Whereas, some of the whiter mothers may be able to dust themselves off and go on with their lives, the children are usually stuck.

Anyway–here’s the info. Be sure to spread it and set the record straight BEFORE these negative statistics are pinned on black WOMEN.”

Ninety Two Percent: Examining the Birth Trends, Family Structure, Economic Standing, Paternal Relationships, and Emotional Stability of Biracial Children with African American Fathers

Tiffany N. Calloway

Independent

June 2, 2015

Abstract:

This study examines the birth trends, family structure, economic standing, paternal relationships, and emotional stability of biracial children with African American fathers. For study implementation quantitative research methods were used. Questions were asked through a questionnaire that was administered to 1000 women spanning the united States that were equally ranging from 3 different racial groups; Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic. Participants were recruited through the internet, radio, and news. This study finds that 92% of biracial children with African American fathers are born out of wedlock and 82% end up on government assistance. The results of this study make it very clear that biracial children with African American fathers are fatherless on a scale much larger than the public may realize.

I agree with Evia on this one that this should be spread far and wide, since everything that is wrong in the so-called Black Community is often blamed on Black Women instead of racism white supremacy, (too) many Black Men’s anti-blackness/self-hate (internalized racism) and anti-black misogyny (misogynoir), and racist anti-black misogynist white/non-black women. It’s time the Black Community start seriously addressing this EPIC messiness. We’re sick of it!

The recent explosion of activism on predominantly white college campuses, fueled by Black students who are protesting racially hostile environments in which they are unsafe, reveals that much is wrong with these institutions of higher learning. Is now the time to explore Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs? Should we now focus on building the endowments of these institutions?

There are calls to fortify these institutions, in which Black young people are supported and loved. In a nurturing, healthy environment free of the garbage we see in majority-white academic institutions, young, gifted and Black minds can grow and secure their sense of self-worth. This is a way for Black young people to avoid the debilitating and crushing psychic damage that they will face at majority-white colleges, as has been the case for the years since Black students were first admitted.

The scope of the problem is clear. Black students at the University of Missouri, facing hate crimes, demand diversity reform at the University of Missouri, 46 years after their first, unmet set of demands. The university president and chancellor resign as a result. At Yale, Black students protest racial insensitivity from faculty and administrators, and call for the renaming of Calhoun College, named for a defender of slavery and hero of the Confederacy. Meanwhile, Princeton students stage a sit-in as the university considers eliminating the name of Woodrow Wilson—who supported the Ku Klux Klan and resegregated the federal government–from their buildings. And at Harvard Law School, a hate crime is committed as someone places tape over the pictures of Black professors on the wall. Who needs this?

Adrienne Green in The Atlantic poses the question as to whether Black colleges are the safe spaces Black students seek. “Many mainstream colleges, schools that enroll a majority of white students, have benefited from the diversity minority students provide—often creating a synthetic microcosm of the real world—but they appear less moved to ensure they serve as spaces that are inclusive for the students they work so hard to attract,” she notes.

HBCUs face challenges due to funding and resources, concerns over low graduation rates, and a perception of providing an inferior education–even from African-Americans. The endowments of all 105 HBCUs combined would only amount to 10 percent of Harvard’s endowment, which at $30 billion is the heftiest in the world, as USA Today reports. However, although HBCUs are merely 3 percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, they supply nearly 20 percent of Black students with undergraduate degrees, and 20 percent of Black students earning bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering. Further, more than 50 percent of Black professionals and public school teachers graduate from HBCUs.

Moreover, for all of their challenges, HBCUs produce graduates that fare better than their peers who attend other institutions. A recent Gallup poll of 56,000 college graduates found that 55 percent of Black HBCU alums say their college prepared them well for life after graduation, as opposed to 29 per­cent of non-HB­CU col­lege gradu­ates. Further, HBCU grads are much more likely to say they benefited from encouraging professors and mentors, are more fulfilled and involved at work, and more are thriving financially (40 percent) than their non-HB­CU peers (29 percent).

Green notes that these Black institutions provide not only cultural centers for students of color, but a community, from the students to the faculty, and a deeply entrenched support system that is concerned about the mental health of young Black people. “HBCUs allow students to unapologetically learn—without fear of violent criticism—about themselves as it pertains to their race,” she writes, while students of color at mainstream institutions are forced to navigate on their own, with no support from school officials and with hostility from white classmates. And as predominantly white universities drag their feet on the road to change, the prospects of an HBCU resurgence—free from the oppression of white supremacy– are increasingly relevant and demanding of our attention.

Predominantly white colleges and universities are facing pushback from Black students because they have offered diversity—sprinkling some dark faces around—while mistaking this for inclusion, a goal which requires more time and effort. Much has been written and reported on the benefits of diversity, and the ways in which diverse environments benefit the learning environment, particularly for white students, and foster more innovative workplaces. At the same time, diversity efforts face criticism as band-aid approaches that fail to address systemic racism.

Carla Shedd, an assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Columbia University argues in a new book that the school you attended shapes your attitudes about inequality. In Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice, Shedd examines students at four Chicago public high schools to conclude that students at more racially diverse schools are more aware of racial injustice and inequality than those whose classmates look like them.

Further, study abroad programs, in which Blacks are underrepresented, offer many benefits to students’ well-being, as well as educational and economic benefits, and a heightened understanding of the world.

The benefits of diversity notwithstanding, the debate over HBCUs vs. predominantly-white institutions should not be viewed as an either-or, mutually exclusive proposition. Still, in order to wield power and gain security, the Black community must build its own prestigious institutions and solve its own problems. Those students fighting for change at Mizzou, Yale, Princeton and elsewhere must be applauded for doing the necessary work to reform these places. And yet, there needs to be an alternative for those who would rather not expend the psychological and physical energy necessary to fight to feel safe, only to emerge as a water carrier for white supremacy.

Now is the perfect opportunity to assist HBCUs in building their endowments, and supply them with the resources to create safe spaces to allow young people to thrive. During the Harlem Renaissance and the days of Black Wall Street, Black America protected itself and succeeded. If Black people want to exist successfully in America with white folks, we need to build our community. And if the HBCUs are not supported, they cannot improve and become what we want them to be.